PRIMARY LIFTS DEMOCRATS AND TRIPS UP REPUBLICANS

By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer

The Democratic leadership enjoyed a double dose of
victory out of Delaware's primary election on Tuesday,
as it watched its endorsed candidates gobble up
nominations while its Republican counterpart fell short
in delivering for a number of its favorites.

In a state increasingly trending Democratic, it was a
stunning rebuke that exposed the Republican organization
as internally weak and acutely vulnerable on Election
Day on Nov. 7.

Jan. C. Ting, the endorsed
Republican, nervously eked out the nomination for the
U.S. Senate to quiet Michael D. Protack – but probably
only until Protack, the perpetual candidate with the
sour-grapes platform, decides if he wants to extend his
previous pinings for governor or the Senate in 2008, or
if he possibly can figure out how, both.

Without Christine O’Donnell, a
right-to-life candidate also in the Republican
senatorial race and siphoning off insurgent votes, Ting
would not have won.

Dennis Spivack, the endorsed
Democrat, purified his party in the ballot battle for
the U.S. House of Representatives by casting out Karen
M. Hartley-Nagle, even if she will be neither gone nor
forgotten.

Hartley-Nagle is a “fusion”
candidate, lingering to run in November because she also
filed on the Independent Party of Delaware, or as the
major parties prefer to think of it, the Party of the
Living Dead.

The Independent Party ticket will
include not only Hartley-Nagle, but three other “fusion”
candidates who lost either Democratic or Republican
legislative primaries.

No double-filer won – perhaps a
sign that the primary voters, typically the most
dedicated of all, wanted no parts of anyone with divided
loyalties, but more likely an indication that the
candidates went fusion because they knew they were going
to lose, anyway.

Primary Day 2006 was conspicuous
for the lack of interest it drew. Turnout was minuscule
for both parties -- about 7 percent of the Democrats'
244,926 voters and about 8 percent of the Republicans'
178,366 voters.

Probably it will never be settled
whether the voters’ collective yawn was caused by
shifting the election from a Saturday, where it never
attracted much attention either, to a workday, or by a
lack of enthusiasm for the candidates themselves.

There had to be something of a
what’s-the-use sentiment among voters asked to
choose top-of-the-ticket candidates likely to do little
but chum the waters for U.S. Sen. Thomas R. Carper, a
Democratic ex-governor who has won more statewide
elections than any other Delawarean, and U.S. Rep.
Michael N. Castle, a Republican ex-governor looking to
extend his state record of seven House terms.

Farther down the ballot, in perhaps
the most-watched race of the day, Gerald L. Brady
defeated Loretta Walsh, a fellow Wilmington council
member, in a Democratic legislative primary for a
Wilmington-area seat vacated by state Rep. Joseph G.
DiPinto, a Republican retiring after 20 years.

With the district registration
leaning Democratic, the seat is regarded as the party’s
best chance at a pickup in the state House of
Representatives, which the Republicans control with a
25-15 majority and one independent. Those chances looked
even better after the Republicans' Primary Day
performance.

Still, the Republicans did help
themselves by being disciplined enough to settle on Gary
C. Linarducci as their candidate without a primary
fight.

In the only legislative district to
have primaries in both parties, state Sen. Harris B.
McDowell III turned back Wilmington Councilman Charles
Potter Jr. and two other challengers in the Democratic
contest, all but ensuring McDowell's re-election in a
heavily Democratic district largely located in the city.

Republican voters selected Gregory
T. Chambers, who had his party’s endorsement, over Tyler
P. Nixon, a “fusion” candidate, to run against McDowell.
Chambers was the only endorsed Republican to win
convincingly.

A Republican endorsement helped
John Feroce slip by Barbara J. Allsop, another “fusion”
candidate, but their protracted squabble and the
closeness of the outcome has detracted, perhaps
irredeemably, from the Republicans’ effort to unseat
state Sen. James T. Vaughn Sr., an 81-year-old Democrat
nearing the end of his career, in a district that spans
the New Castle County-Kent County line.

A Republican endorsement failed to
carry Brian N. Moore, who lost to Nick Manolakos in a
Hockessin legislative district. Manolakos has the
benefit of a Republican edge in registration against
Democrat Richard J. Korn in the election for a seat held
for 30 years by state Rep. Roger P. Roy, a Republican
who is retiring.

Harold J. “Jack” Peterman, another
endorsed Republican, also lost in a Republican
legislative primary, despite being a sitting Kent County
Levy Court commissioner. The nomination went to Ulysses
S. Grant for the election to replace retiring state Rep.
G. Wallace Caulk Jr., a onetime Republican who switched
to independent last year.

Between Caulk’s rejection of the
party and the primary results, the Democrats have to
like the prospects for Robert E. Walls, their candidate
in November.

In the Democratic Party, the
regulars had a better Primary Day.

A Democratic endorsement helped
Democrat John J. Mitchell Jr. in an Elsmere legislative
district to overcome Edward F. Doyle, who did not have
the party behind him but did have the Teamsters. With a
serious Democratic advantage in voter registration,
Mitchell is a decided favorite against Republican John
Jaremchuk Jr. to succeed retiring state Rep. John F. Van
Sant, a Democrat who was the House minority whip.

State Rep. Diana M. McWilliams
dispatched a final “fusion” candidate by drubbing
Michael R. Dore in a Democratic primary in Brandywine
Hundred. It left her well-situated in her campaign for a
second term against Republican W.E. “Bill” Smith.

Victories in Democratic primaries
for four legislators – state Reps. Dennis P. Williams,
Hazel D. Plant and Helene M. Keeley in Wilmington and
Rep. John J. Viola in Bear-Glasgow – guaranteed their
return to Dover. Not one of them has a Republican
opponent.

Finally, Carl Colantuono had the
Democratic Party’s backing but hardly needed it in a
Brandywine Hundred district to beat Fred Jeffrey Boykin,
who distinguished himself by getting arrested for an
election-related threat.

Next up for Colantuono is state
Rep. Wayne A. Smith, the House’s Republican majority
leader. The thrill of victory for Colantuono should be
right up there with Ting and Spivack – which is to say,
well, enjoy it now.